Ferguson’s fury over equaliser

West Ham 1 Man Utd 1

Jermain Defoe, deemed to be on-side, poked home only his second Premiership goal of the season five minutes from time to cancel out Ruud van Nistelrooy's opener which had also been contentious.

West Ham twice hit the woodwork through Joe Cole and Defoe and, despite failing to win for an eighth home league game this season, did show resilience belying their position next to bottom in the table.

But Ferguson said: "We were disappointed; we put in a really good performance and defended particularly well. The goal was clearly a yard offside, and there is nothing you can do about that. There is no one you can blame for it.

"It's unfortunate the linesman had a bad performance today. These things happen in football, and we are

hamstrung with that.

"I think West Ham deserved their point at the end of the day but they had to thank the linesman. We hope the breaks will turn our way. We played some excellent football, and the teamwork was terrific."

Of van Nistelrooy's goal when the Dutch striker turned in at the near post after initially returning from an

offside position,

Ferguson added: "If he's not interfering with play in the first attack he's not offside."

Ferguson's opposite number Glenn Roeder was disappointed with the decision to allow van Nistelrooy's 11th goal of the season and diplomatically said: "That's why it was 1-1 I wouldn't argue with Alex.

"I spent the next hour asking the linesman on that decision, and he didn't have an answer.

"We are all humans, and if he's made an error it's a genuine error. He's not done it on purpose none of us is a machine."

United, nine points behind leaders Arsenal, will be without David Beckham and Gary Neville for around three weeks with rib and thigh injuries respectively.

That adds to their injury woes with Rio Ferdinand, Nicky Butt and Roy Keane already out. Ryan Giggs was due to report for international duty for Wales, who head off to Azerbaijan today.

Roeder reflected on the positives of his struggling side, adding: "Even before the goal you could see the belief and spirit the team is playing with.

"We just have to hope that this is the start of a good run for us."

Defoe has now scored in West Ham's last three meetings with Manchester United, and Roeder was full of praise.

"This will be the toughest period in his footballing life, because we are having to play him as the main striker up through the middle," he said.

"I am sure that one day when he plays as the second striker which he really is and he has someone with a bigger physical presence alongside him it will help him.

"If Freddie Kanoute had been fit I would have rested him a few games ago. But I have had to keep playing him when it's been tough.

"He's only just 20 and he's stayed with it when things haven't been going his way and worked hard for the team.

"If anyone deserved to score that goal it was him."

United would have stolen the points but for three brilliant stops by David James. Roeder added: "That's what he's capable of when I bought him I did so to make saves.

"When he had to he did so, and had they scored at the end Christian Dailly's slip would have been the cruellest of all. We wouldn't have deserved that."

Unlike their last home match when Leeds were 4-1 up at the break, the hosts remained in touch throughout.

"It would have been easy to chase the game and lose our shape and discipline and lose a second goal as a result," said Roeder.

"But I said to the players at the break that while we were losing 1-0 we were in with a shout."

WEST HAM: James, Schemmel, Winterburn, Dailly, Pearce, Sinclair, Cisse, Carrick, Cole, Defoe, Di Canio.

MAN UTD: Barthez, Brown, Blanc, O'Shea, Silvestre, Scholes, Veron, Solskjaer, Fortune, Giggs, van Nistelrooy.

Ref: M Halsey (Lancashire).